The invention relates to a recording and/or reproducing apparatus for a record carrier arranged in a cassette, comprising a cassette holder which comprises at least one main wall and two side walls and which is guided so as to be movable between a first end position and a second end position in a direction parallel to its side walls along a path of movement which extends at least partly transversely of its main wall, one end position being a loading position, in which a cassette whose main walls extend parallel to the main wall of the cassette holder can be inserted into the cassette holder and in which a main wall of an inserted cassette is positioned against the main wall of the holder, and the other end position being an operating position, at least one actuating spring acting on said holder to move it from the first end position to the second end position and to urge it against at least one stop in the second end position, which holder can be latched in the first end position against the force of the actuating spring by means of a disengageable latching device.
Such an apparatus is disclosed in German Auslegeschrift No. 12 07 653 to which U.S. Pat. No. 3,395,871 corresponds. In this known apparatus the cassette holder is channel-shaped and comprises two main walls interconnected by two side walls. By means of two actuating springs this cassette holder is movable between a loading position corresponding to said first end position and an operating position corresponding to said second end position along a path of movement parallel to its side walls and perpendicular to its main walls, said springs being two tension springs which extend perpendicularly to the main walls of the cassette holder and which are attached to the cassette holder and to the chassis. The tension springs are relatively short in order to minimize the space occupied in a direction perpendicular to the main walls of the cassette holder and hence the height of the apparatus, which means that they have a comparatively steep spring characteristic so that the forces exerted on the cassette holder in the tensioned and the relaxed condition of the actuating springs, i.e. in the loading position and the operating position, respectively, differ considerably. When the cassette holder is moved from its operating position to its loading position the forces exerted by the actuating springs, which then increase considerably, must be overcome, which requires a substantial effort and is therefore inconvenient if the cassette holder is manually set to its loading position as in the known apparatus.